7 Presidents Who Thought Like Engineers

Most presidents come from an academic or professional background that involves letters -- law, writing, maybe journalism or education. Few bring to the office what one might call a technical background.

Only one, Herbert Hoover, was in the strictest sense an engineer by trade. And only one other president, Jimmy Carter, studied engineering in college. However, several of our earliest presidents worked as land surveyors, a lost art that involves a technical mastery of cartography. Some have labored with their hands and minds in similar conditions as electrical engineers today. Others have faced technological transformations while in office.

For this Presidents' Day, we look back at seven Presidents who thought the way engineers do -- seven of the most technical leaders of the free world.

Politics aside,.. Are you kidding me? Even before I got to the end, I knew that Barak Obama was going to make the list. The reasons sound like a "facilitator" position.

-- the uses of iPads and other mobile devices in his presidency. My daughter uses an ipad for notes, streaming video, that doesn't make her an engineer.

-- involved in technology, such as making sure his BlackBerry was secure at the start of his presidency. Really? It wasn't the NSA, FBI and Secret Service that wanted him to have secure comms? If it wasn't them, then why wasn't it secure before his presidency? I mean if he was an engineer-minded person.

-- and the problems caused by NSA surveillance on individuals of American as well as non-American descent -- earn him a spot on this list. Again, really? So the president isn't involved with what the NSA does? And as a "constitutional lawyer by trade, his thinking reminds us of that of an engineer" he can't follow the logic to realize that the 4th Amendment protects against "unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.". Considering that you must have a warrant to tap someone's phone in a criminal investigation, it is common sense that if they are doing that WITHOUT a warrant or probable cause, then it must be illegal.

No Dwight Eisenhower? Responsible for planning the invasion of North Africa, D-Day, and during his presidency, The Interstate highway system, DARPA, NASA...

Is there anyone not on this list who belongs there? Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and a few others came close. Obviously, anyone who was at West Point, in the Army Corps of Engineers, is a candidate.